Plot Bunny Pastures - Marvel
by ProfessorScrooge
Summary: See the free-range rabbits roam freely; enter at own risk. This would be my unfinished works file, containing things not worth posting on their own as they're too small or being unfinished etc. Things from here may end up being resurrected and expanded upon as full stories, but for the moment this is where they'll stay. This is my Marvel file (both comics and MCU).
1. Patriot

**A/N: So this little one emerged after Age of Ultron came out, I believe. I was thinking on Captain Britain, the 'Ultimate Galactus' comics (of which I've read the first few) and the Secret Warriors comics which involved the war between Hydra and Leviathan. I think this was going to be my introducing Captain Britain to the MCU as the second Winter Soldier (as the first was stolen by Hydra) and being rehabilitated by – as well as forming a relationship with – Wanda, due to her mental abilities. It was an interesting idea to have a mentally damaged person with super-powers (one explored with The Sentry and other such characters) and I still feel I may come back to this one at some point, though I'd probably have to disregard the canon appearance of Leviathan in Agent Carter (which aired after I wrote this).**

 **Also, yes, this was originally posted in my other PBP story file, which has now become my Harry Potter one. I felt this should probably sit in the proper category, and it's also possible I might bring out some other Marvel stuff at some point.**

 **Oh, this is all Marvel and set in the MCU if you hadn't guessed. No Harry Potter whatsoever.**

Patriot

Today, New Avengers Facility

"I know you got your magic stuff, but you need to be able to hold your own in hand to hand," Sam Wilson insisted as he and Wanda walked down a few corridors.

"I am capable of handling myself. HYDRA….trained us to an extent," the brunette replied.

"Well, Steve disagrees or we wouldn't be talking. And when Captain America says to do something…." Wilson ended with a chuckle, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And she understood him a bit; Captain America was someone she could understand at least, he stood up and volunteered for his country in a time of war and great difficulty. Had she and Pietro not done the same? Of course, she suspected he had different reasons for ordering this. She had spent much of her time of late in her new room, and she knew it was not healthy, but she couldn't tear her mind from Pietro.

She walked confidently on the outside, in her new resplendent tight-fitting red garments, on the inside however….she had spent many days locked inside her room, mourning her brother. The one constant in her life was Pietro, always there, to protect her, to confide in, be a shoulder to cry on or a shield against the world. And now he was….gone. Stolen away in an instant.

"Wanda?" a voice pierced through her thoughts turning again to her brother, and she looked into the curious eyes of the Falcon.

"Sorry," she said.

"You kinda zoned out there," he replied, turning his attention to a hand-scanner on a set of double doors. That triggered a welcoming verbal response from Friday, the AI who ran the compound, as well as the door locks clicking open. Wilson pulled it open, and gestured for her to move through. "Ladies first."

She followed his request, and moved through into a large gym-like space. It had a lacquered wooden floor, there was a boxing ring to the side, and the walls were lined with weaponry.

The most interesting feature though was the woman in the centre of the room, surrounded by four of the 'Iron Legion' as Stark had called them.

The redhead was fighting them in hand to hand, with no small amount of skill that made her reminiscent of the Black Widow with her hair colour. Similarity ended there though. This woman was tall, 6ft 3", maybe 4", and her crimson locks cascaded down back far lower than Romanoff's shorter hair. From her tank top and shorts, she was also visibly even more muscled than the super-spy, and with a far less pronounced bust, her body more akin to an athlete or weight-lifter. She was younger too, her face making her seem in her late teens to early twenties, around Wanda's own age.

The most visible difference though was in her fighting technique.

Wanda had seen Romanoff fight, and she did so in a deflecting manner, using her agility rather than strength, and turning opponent's strength against them.

This woman was more like the stoic Captain, or Thor, she moved with a powerful strength, very much on the offensive, and laying into the four robots very hard.

The armoured opponents were not using their repulsors, though the woman wasn't really giving them much time to. She attacked with ferocity, and even as Wanda was walking into the room, she whipped around and pulled one down in a headlock before removing its metal skull.

As Wilson followed her in, Wanda stood by the wall and watched the whirlwind of motion with an eyebrow raised. She took on the robots with no small amount of power in her limbs, dealing with them quickly and efficiently and within the space of a minute they were all spare parts. A fifth robot moved over from the shadows as the woman took a few heaving breaths, simply standing there as the newcomer started sweeping its broken fellows into a pile of accumulated mechanoid bodies.

"One hundred and four seconds," came Friday's voice from the machine, "would you like to go again?" The woman turned around at the question and simply shook her head, making her way towards the exit. She didn't even look around at Sam and Wanda as she left the room, and the brunette was left curious.

"Who was she?" she asked her guide. She had to be _someone_ , as she displayed a level of strength likely not far off the Captain's, and yet Wanda did not know of an Avenger that fit her description.

"Gotta be honest and say I don't know, she spends even more time in her room than you do," Sam replied as he dumped a kit bag on the floor of the gym, "when I asked, I was told she's classified."

"I thought we are Avengers now? What is classified from us?" Wanda said confusedly.

"I don't know, though I do know Doctor Cho comes in to see her," he said off handedly as he stretched his muscles a bit, limbering up. "Not important right now, don't think I don't notice change in subject. You've stepped into the church, time to see what you're made of. And no magic, that's cheating."

"Fine," she relented, pulling off her slim fit red jacket as she readied herself to fight. She still wondered though; just who was the redhead?

Project Pegasus, 2012

"What do you mean we had a break–in? This is supposed to be the most secure facility on the planet," Nick Fury asked, annoyance showing in his eye.

"It is sir," Maria Hill replied, sorting through items on her tablet computer. "However, obviously not secure enough. Small team of insurgents, no identifying insignia, went directly for Phase Two."

"Well we provided them with plenty of signposts," Fury replied, gesturing at one as they crossed an intersection. "How?"

"Set off a local EMP to jam our surveillance and lighting systems, and moved in the dark. As per protocol, agents moved to secure the Tesseract. They didn't go near that end of the facility; they just went to the archives. Went dark, few bullets, mostly knockouts, kept things quiet," Hill rattled off the information.

"What did they take?"

"We're still doing an inventory to be sure, but so far mostly all that are missing are power-sources; old HYDRA tech powered by the Tesseract."

"None of the guns or weaponry?"

"No, the only thing they took from some of the guns was the power packs, though they stopped raiding once we restored power."

"Shouldn't the archive have been sealed off as soon as the energy was back on?" Fury was right in that protocol allowed most secure parts of the facility to be sealed behind strong steel shutters that would take a serious amount of force to get through.

"It was," Hill replied, "you'll see in just a moment." They rounded a corner and stopped before the archive entrance. The shutter had indeed dropped on the entryway, that was for sure. However it lay mangled and bent leaning out into the corridor by the ceiling from where it was still attached to the top of the door frame.

"Those are hand prints," Fury said lowly as he regarded the characteristic four indents that showed fingers had gripped the side as the metal was bent.

"Yes sir, we believe a female enhanced was leading the assault, we have security footage of her doing this," Hill said while handing over her tablet where the video was playing.

The pair watched the small screen as seven figures looked up at the ceiling as lights flickered on. They were all wearing skin-tight black suits reminiscent of Agent Romanoff, except each wore an ebony helmet with a full face visor, black of course so no-one could see their features. Of the group, only one was female, who was distinguished from the rest by a series of red lines on her suit, and it was she who stepped up to the doorway and the metal blocking it.

Hill and Fury watched in silence as she slowly bent the metal out of the way and into the shape before the group headed through the now open exit.

"So we have an unknown group attacking our secret facility and taking energy storage devices?" Fury questioned with a hard look present in his face, "and an enhanced as well as a part of this group."

"Yes sir."

"Great, this is all I need…" Fury massaged the bridge of his nose for a moment, deep in thought. "First priority is find what they took, and then find them. Keep this high level, we have someone new to put on the Index. I want her and her team found before my next council meeting."

"I'll get right to that sir."

"And I want you personally leading the investigation," he added.

"Yes sir."

"Get back to me when you find something." His orders given, the imposing man walked off towards the engineers hanging around the doorframe.

Maria moved around her schedule on her tablet, marking the latest priority of her eclectic job. Nobody ever said working for SHIELD was boring.

Topeka, Kansas, 2012

The security guard grumbled and muttered obsanities under his breath as he made his way over to the insistent, loud knocking on the door. His scowl was pronounced when he opened it to show a woman with short black hair, wearing a black military-style trench coat which the rain ran off in sheets. She immediately threw her hand up to display a badge in a wallet.

"Maria Hill of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division. I need to review your security footage of the last forty-eight hours," she clipped out.

"Don't you need a warrant or summat for that?" he replied, scratching his head.

"No," she stated simply, pushing past him through the doorway and walking briskly over to his office. He watched from the corner with growing annoyance as she cycled back through footage on the CCTV. The rewinding stopped and the stuttering video played to display something unexpected.

Several men in suits were in the alley, surrounding a single woman in a skin-tight black cat suit with red stripes. As there was only one frame per second, the following fight was juddering, but painted a clear picture of who had the upper hand. The woman laid them all low. What was strange was a blue flash that overtook the screen at one point.

The woman rewound the footage and watched it back twice before pausing on the flash's frame.

Paris, France 2013

"Lone assassin, got past all of ze security and shot le presidente in his study," the man in a grey suit said as he followed the black haired woman down a corridor of the Élysée Palace.

"Did you get any decent footage of them?" Hill questioned. The man simply handed her a blown up photograph that confirmed her suspicions. The blank visor of the woman almost seemed to be mocking her.

Dresden, Germany, 2013

"All agents, prepare to move in," Hill declared, watching the various screens streaming footage from cameras on the agents' helmets. Anticipation ran through her veins as her men moved down the secret stairs to the basement of the old general store. "Engage."

At her command, a boot stuck out to smash the wooden door down and men filed into the space beyond, aiming assault rifles everywhere as they looked down the sights.

Maria's heart sank as they surveyed the empty concrete space. They moved forward to investigate the doorways, but she already knew they'd find nothing. Damn it, how were these people always one step ahead?

Triskelion, Washington DC, 2014

"What's the mission?" Steve asked as he moved quickly into the Quinjet, having got the urgent message while in the gym.

"We finally got a trail on someone we've been tracking for a long time," Maria answered as the doors closed. "Enhanced female, works with an unidentified group."

"Genuine enhanced?" he said incredulously. Few people on the planet fell under the category, and he was one on that short list.

"Exhibits super-human strength, and possibly some other stuff, we're not sure," the woman answered, handing over a tablet PC which displayed a short video of a woman in a black jumpsuit and helmet with a few red stripes taking down a squad of SHIELD agents, flicking to several other clips. "Works with an unknown group. Travels with small teams, the roster changes but she's the only constant."

"You have no idea who they are?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow. SHIELD knew practically everything these days, it scared him at times. Hill grimaced at his question, obviously not exactly happy about it.

"They pop up at random locations and disappear like smoke, this is the first time we've become certain of where they are," she clipped out, "I've been trying to track these guys since before the New York incident, and all I've ever been able to get is we're not the only ones. Bounties on those people's heads are high on the black market, but no-one knows who they are."

"So what's changed?"

"They slipped up," she tapped something on the tablet he was holding and it changed to a satellite view of a cargo container, which was seemingly surrounded by gunboats. The flash of gunfire was just about visible in the image.

"This live?"

"Yes, off the coast of Africa. Ship belongs to one Ulysses Klaw, previously imprisoned for ten years for war profiteering," a picture of the tanned, bearded man appeared on screen.

"Who they engaged with? They friendlies?"

"Wakandans, very secretive society that does _not_ trust outsiders, they must have done something to piss them off," Hill answered, taking back the computer, "last Westerner to get close to them was Howard Stark. That's where he got the vibranium for your shield."

"Could that be what they're after?" he mused.

"Possible, would definitely be enough to anger the Wakandans like this. However that's not our priority. We need to get her, and as many of her team as possible, and find out who they are. This may be our one shot."

"Don't worry," proclaimed a voice, and Natasha stepped from the shadows of the cockpit, "we'll get them. You got two Avengers on the plane, remember?"

"Nat, it's good to see you," the Captain proclaimed with a smile.

"Likewise Cap," she tipped her head in respect, "we're coming up on the drop zone. Rest of the STRIKE team are ready to board, just waiting on us."

"I'll take over controls, you two get ready to jump," Hill declared, moving up towards the vacated seat.

"Been a while," Steve said as he rested a hand on the overhead, waiting for the door to open.

"Yeah, I think I prefer it when we're not being shot at by Bolivians though," the Russian woman quipped, doing likewise as the hatch opened up to reveal the firefight below. Hill brought the Quinjet in low, and the pair jumped off, falling for a fast few seconds before rolling on impact with military precision. All around, members of the SHIELD STRIKE team parachuted down as well, with cocked weapons as they engaged the team aboard the vessel.

General mercenaries were mixed in here and there with familiar black jumpsuits, all laying heavy fire upon the paratroopers. Steve and Natasha ducked down behind a crate as a rain of bullets pinged over the space they had just vacated.

"Try and get below, disable the engines," Steve ordered, "I'll take top deck, thin out the crowd."

"Priority is the enhanced," the redhead replied.

Any further talk was stopped as a huge explosion blew fire into the sky in front of them; one of the gunmetal grey war-vessels of the Wakandans was blown sky high. A figure was high-lighted by the orange light as they flew through the air to land heavily on the deck by the STRIKE team's position.

The agents tried to turn and deal with the new threat, but the figure was already upon them. The discernibly feminine shape laid into them like so many two-bit thugs, snapping one's neck a second after landing and jumping forward to lay a high punch into another. She rolled forward and took an agent with her, before scrambling back up holding his assault rifle. She ducked behind cover as the STRIKE team advanced on her position, seeing to their comrades, while unleashing a hail of bullets. Steve and Natasha made forward for the position as well, before the air was rent by an explosion yet again as fire engulfed the agent she had taken a weapon from. She must have set off one of the grenades on him, and allowed the group to get close.

Natasha cursed at the heat, holding up a hand in defence while watching the sight of the team picking themselves up off the ground from the grenade hit or dealing with burns, depending on proximity to the explosion.

It was only then the woman emerged from cover, unleashing short, sharp accurate attacks, taking a SHIELD agent down with each bullet. Heads snapped backwards, and the remaining men leaped for cover against the gunfire.

As Natasha and Steve resumed their dash for the enhanced, their feet pounded on the metal loudly. She clearly heard the cacophony, and turned her rifle round to bear on them. Steve held out his shield to deflect the attack as he ran…..except it never came, the woman just stood there, her gun moving to the side limply as she stared at the duo. She remained motionless until the Captain threw his shield at her.

Acting immediately, with incredible reflex she ducked under the attack and reached out a hand to punch the shield from underneath, deflecting its trajectory to embed in a shipping container. He gave her no more time to do anything, running up to her and swinging in his right hook.

She held up her left arm in response and laid in her own right uppercut in a shock to Steve's ribcage. He stumbled back a bit, stunned at the strength she displayed. The woman however, seemed hesitant to attack, looking at him strangely.

It lasted only for a moment before Nat stepped into the breach, the Black Widow slipping forward to connect a blow to the woman's side, before another one to her helmet.

The woman reacted quickly, swinging out a right hook, but the spy ducked underneath and slid forward with a charge hanging around her gloved fists to deliver an electric shock to the woman's helmet, aiming directly at the neck joint. The woman stumbled back, hands clasping up at the joint as pain clearly attacked her. With a fluid motion, the helmet was ripped off to display a young woman, with a pale face and long red hair.

Said woman looked no older than twenty, and while not beautiful, could be regarded as good looking. Her features however were twisted in confusion and uncertainty, as she kept glancing towards the Captain while backing up towards the crates. She held her hands out in a non-threatening gesture, before she was distracted as a hail of bullets penetrated the deck around them. The woman ducked behind a crate on one side, while Steve and Natasha moved across to one back in the direction they came from. Steve ducked a head out once to make out two black-suited men and one woman approaching with rifles out held, pinning them down with heavy fire.

"Evak, seychas!" yelled a male voice from around the corner.

"No eto-," yelled the enhanced back, but was swiftly cut off.

"Seychas!" commanded the male voice again. The redhead threw a final glance at Steve and Natasha with a conflicted gaze, before dashing around towards the trio of gun-toting soldiers.

"Incoming bird, get to the enhanced now!" proclaimed Hill's voice through the survivors ear pieces.

It was Natasha who acted first, slipping around the corner while sliding on her knees, throwing out a few of her electric party tricks onto the floor, which shocked the three insurgents. She got up and ran past the spasming men, as Steve retrieved his shield and followed. They caught up to the fleeing redhead as she climbed up onto a shipping container. The woman gave a look down at them, still with that confused expression before she was distracted by a noise off the edge of the ship.

The plane Maria had mentioned swooped into view, just visibly trailing a rope. One second the enhanced was there, the next she had grabbed onto the line and she was gone.

"All pilots, pursuit on bogey heading east, do not let them get away!" Hill practically shouted through her mic.

"That was a MiG twenty nine K," Natasha murmured, disbelief in her voice.

"Should I know what that is?" the Captain inquired, watching the SHIELD Quinjets move to follow the plane.

"Russian stealth aircraft, developed in the seventies and eighties. And they were speaking Russian as well," she replied, a pensive look on her face.

"Bird just went supersonic," some male voice declared through their ear pieces.

"Do you have a lock?" Hill demanded.

"Negative, nothing across all scopes." There was no reply across the air waves, and it was easy to sense the commander's anger and frustration.

"Mop it up on the boat; I want them all taken alive, we need to find out who these people are."

Triskelion, later that day

"Please tell me we at least have something?" Director Fury was not best impressed as he laid his hands out, palm down on the table.

"Of the few prisoners we took from the group, they all committed suicide. Either by breaking their own necks or swallowing some kind of pill. Facial recognition and dental records gave us nothing," Hill said tiredly.

"And the mercs?"

"Most got away with Klaw, and those we captured know nothing of the other group. They kept to themselves and said nothing, and none knew why they were there."

"Wonderful," he replied, his tone obviously stating how it definitely wasn't. "Did your contacts throw up anything Agent Romanoff?"

"Nothing," the woman replied, "the plane could have been taken at any point over the last thirty years, and knowing they speak Russian isn't much help; a lot of countries speak it."

"But surely this whole thing must have come from somewhere high up? That was an enhanced out there, they don't just pop out of the ground, they tend to be made."

"It's just not enough to go on. The Russian Super solider program was not defined clearly," her face took over a dark look at thoughts of her past, "it was like…boxes within boxes. No-one knew the full extent or knew of every program, often working on parallel problems and never meeting. Several dropped off the map when the wall came down, and more just stopped functioning when their pay checks stopped coming in. There's a dozen government funded remnants of USSR programs that this may be, and most anyone who'd know about it is dead."

"But it's not one you know of?"

"It could have been Tunguska, but that shut down so long ago. You know what happened there; you sent me to clear it out. There was practically nothing left, and any remaining ' _experiments'_ were dead."

"Does anyone have any information?" he finally said after a moment's silent exasperation.

"We know what they went there for," Hill answered. "Vibranium. We're trying to get movement on Klaw. They'll be trying to get it off him at some point."

"Okay then, what do they want it for then?"

"We're not sure at this time…."

"So we still have practically nothing to go on," Fury answered, frustration tinging his deep voice. "How can one group run rings around the world's premier security organisation?"

"Well, it's professionals we're dealing with sir."

Undisclosed Location, same time

"My name…..my name is Amelia," the words were whispered out by the pale body with arms wrapped around herself, curled into the corner of the shower.

"I, I am a patriot," dropped from the same lips as she unconsciously shivered, possibly due to the sheets of water from above that had long since turned ice cold. "I lo-love my country, I _serve_ my country."

Conflicts, doubts and emotions flashed across the woman's mind as she curled into herself, images of battle featuring predominantly. Blood spilt, necks cracked, death dealt.

Her hands moved up before her face, trembling as within her vision they looked to be coated in dripping crimson. She gripped them to her head, running digits through her long red hair that was plastered to her skull.

"My name…my name is…" she faltered, sobs wracking her body, "oh god what have I…." She collapsed to the side, assuming a foetal position where she lay muttering to herself until black suited men walked into the bathroom. She barely noticed as she was yanked from the shower, not caring for the water spilling everywhere. "Please," she mumbled as she was held down, a needle pressing into her skin, "I…." Her vision grew hazy again, blackness encroaching.

The last image in her mind as darkness claimed her was of a man, clad in red, white and blue, hefting a shield.

Chapter 2

2015, somewhere over America

"Don't worry big guy, we'll find the sceptre eventually," Tony reassuringly threw over his shoulder at the brooding Asgardian.

"It just seems as if there is no end in sight, and all we do effects HYDRA for naught," the pensive god replied.

"That's the same way I felt," Steve added, "back when we fought them the first time round. But it does affect them; every base we take out, we're cutting off one more head. We're getting close."

"Yeah, one of these days we'll find a base which has a clone of old moustache face himself, so Capsicle can make it 283 times he's punched Hitler in the face," Tony replied with a chuckle. He was distracted from the Captain's reply by a warning light and insistent beeping from the cockpit.

"Sir," came Jarvis' smooth voice, "I believe the tower is under attack. The Iron Legion has just arrived back, and the building is in shutdown. I cannot access any computers or get inside." Tony frowned, his playful manner disappearing.

"Hawkeye, take the stick, I'm suiting up. Thor, coming with?" the billionaire declared.

"Gladly, Mjolnir is always ready to deal with some more miscreants," the blond god gave a grin as Tony stepped into his open and waiting suit, the systems sealing and clicking in around him.

"I swear if they've touched my liqueur cabinet," Tony said ominously as the back hatch of the jet opened up. He and Thor jumped out, quickly accelerating to supersonic speeds. "Can you break into the remote systems Jarvis?"

"Regrettably not, sir," came the reply from around Tony.

"If this turns out to be Fury, I will not be impressed," he remarked as Stark Tower came into view, as well as the five members of the Iron Legion hanging in the air outside of it.

Thor, being Thor, didn't even slow down, smashing right through one of the top windows that lead into Tony's lab. Stark tried not to wince at the expense of the supposedly reinforced glass he had just smashed through as he followed the Norse god.

As he landed inside, he was greeted with the sight of a figure hunched over his main computer terminal. She was dressed in a skin-tight black suit and matching helmet, with a few red stripes down her body.

"Step away from the computer and put your hands in the air," he declared through his helmet modulator, holding up a hand with the repulsor powering up.

The woman didn't reply, making only a single movement to some kind of backpack she was wearing. After a second she dashed forward in a roll over the desk, coming up with a pistol in her hand which she fired thrice at Stark.

The man allowed the bullets to ping off his armour before letting loose the repulsor blast. The expulsion of energy hit the black garbed woman squarely, throwing her backwards to collide roughly into a wall. The crack resounded through the room, and she slumped to the floor limply.

Thor moved over to her prone figure, seemingly to help her up, offering his spare hand. Weakly, the figure took his proffered limb, before suddenly hauling him to the side in a bout of strength, slamming the god into the very same wall she had impacted on moments earlier.

No longer faking injury, she leaped up and dashed towards Tony. He stepped backwards as she quickly advanced, firing off two repulsor shots that she dodged while dialling up the suit power. As she reached him, it was he who had to dodge a punch, and her second follow up dented his armour and forced him back a pace.

Having spun up the power in the suit, he released it through the chest Arc, catching her unawares as it caught her right shoulder, sending her spinning backwards. Tony stepped back as well, re-evaluating his opponent and watching Thor getting back up.

When the woman stood again, Tony frowned as he saw her shoulder. The material of the cat suit had frayed and left her pale skin bare - meaning he'd obviously put a bit too much power in - however, her flesh was unhurt, which shouldn't have been true for such a blast. Filing that away for later, Tony concentrated on something else the lack of clothing had revealed: a tattoo, which he made sure to store a picture of. The top part of the art was a black circle containing the Union Jack, with 'S.T.R.I.K.E' written in gold on the black border. Below that was simply '42' inked into her skin.

His concentration was snapped as the woman leapt into action against an enraged Thor, slapping Mjolnir aside twice before placing her hands on his chest. Tony's eyes widened as in a flash of blue light - seemingly emerging from the woman's hand - blasted Thor back _through_ a wall, smashing the masonry.

Her head then turned to him, and he readied himself to fight. She however, dashed towards the broken window and jumped out into the sky.

Tony ran over to look down at the descending figure falling through the air. He was about to pursue her when a beep sounded by his feet. A glance down awarded him a view of a small metal device before everything went black.

##################################################################

"Analysed the EMP device she left behind," Tony declared as he moved into the main living area of Stark Tower slash meeting room where the Avengers were currently gathered. "Parts are Russian."

"Told you; same woman we met off the coast of Wakanda," Steve commented, "Hill said she was part of a group SHIELD had been chasing for a while."

"Hey, where is my chief of staff?" the billionaire inquired, turning on the spot to look for her. "She went off muttering after I showed her a photo of the woman's tattoo."

"Can I have a look?" Natasha asked from her seat. As Tony brought up the picture on his phone and handed it to her, she frowned. "She…this can't be right."

"It is," declared a female voice as Maria finally made her appearance, carrying her tablet as usual. "I'm guessing this is the person you saw on the boat?" the woman held up her tablet which held a mug-shot of a red haired teen, around eighteen years old.

"That's her," Rogers confirmed. "Who is she?"

"Amelia Anne Braddock," Maria answered, "born in Scotland, March 12th 1967, graduated University of Cambridge 1985, gained a PhD in Nuclear Physics in 1986."

"She graduated from Cambridge at eighteen?" Bruce said incredulously, looking at Maria over the top of his glasses.

"No, hang on, that would put her in her fifties," Natasha stated, "the woman we fought didn't look a day over twenty-one."

"Braddock…Braddock, I know that name…" Tony muttered.

"You should, she was a genius on par with your father. The two of them were working on the possibilities of renewable energy in separate hemispheres. While he went with Arc Reactor technology, she was experimenting with Nuclear Fusion," Maria continued.

"I remember now," Tony said with a snap of his fingers, "Glasgow, right?" Hill nodded in return before continuing.

"1986, while she is in Sweden on nomination for a Nobel Prize, her experimental reactor in a laboratory at Glasgow University explodes, levelling the university campus and a portion of the city. The dead included her sister, Elisabeth Braddock," the ex-SHIELD agent's face remained neutral as she swiped at her tablet. "She was never exactly a media darling, and she was crucified in the court of public opinion, though her tendency of not having her photograph taken helped her out."

"Didn't she disappear after that?" Tony asked, "I know there were rumours of a suicide or someone killing her."

"Not exactly," Hill answered, "she went to her old government contacts that had got her along in past years but got turned down. Up the proverbial creek without a paddle, she tried to find work and was picked up by STRIKE, the British equivalent of the SSR concentrating on superhuman development."

"Wasn't STRIKE that Hydra group within SHIELD?" inquired Sam Wilson from where he perched on an armrest.

"That was later on," Maria replied, "anyway, Braddock was assigned to Project Patriot as a test subject with the understanding once she had served her term as that, she would be hired on in their R&D department. Project Patriot is, or was, one of several attempts at reconstructing Dr Erskine's super soldier serum, since after the war as part of contributions to the SSR, the British received some of Steve's blood." She nodded towards the blond man who was staying neutral in expression. "Braddock was number 42 of 64 subjects, the majority of which were under similar contract to her as in receiving employment after going through the process. Braddock was Project Patriot's first – and only – success, and STRIKE's resources were quickly moved towards making her better and finding out why it worked. Unofficially, she was code-named Captain Britain, and she was even given the rank of Captain in preparation for her to serve a similar function to you, Cap."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming," Rogers stated.

"1989, STRIKE is attacked by an unknown force that tore them apart. Majority of their operatives are killed, and Braddock disappears – presumed dead. The Russians are suspected, but nothing is ever proved."

"Not that unlikely, we owned British intelligence back then," Natasha commented.

"With STRIKE in disarray, SHIELD steps in to help out, and reforms are made in Britain with parts of STRIKE –including the name and some personnel – go with SHIELD, while the rest becomes part of MI: 13 which assumes its responsibilities in Britain. SHIELD STRIKE was the name of that division within SHIELD, which later became the unit we all know."

"So, let me see if I got this history lesson straight; we have a genius Scottish woman with all of Cap over there's strength, captured by the Russians, brainwashed or something and is now causing havoc thirty years later. I miss anything?" Clint inquired, looking around the room.

"Yeah, energy blasts of some sort from her hands, she blew Thor through a wall with them. That ain't from Super Soldier Serum," Tony stated.

"Whoever has her has had decades to experiment," Natasha commented, "they'll have tried to improve her effectiveness most likely. My question is; why are we only seeing her now? First report was, what, 2012?"

"2011," Hill answered, "in the Czech Republic."

 **A/N: And that's as far as I got. Might revisit this one at some point; I really do like the idea, even if much of it has faded from mind. Perhaps when I have less pressing matters to deal with.**


	2. Wolfgang

**A/N: This one came to me while reading Philosophize's Batgirl/HP fic, with the exotically named 'Amarylis Potter.' For some reason, probably due to the fact both can be shortened to Amy, it put me in mind of another character. Took me a while to polish this one up, but I've been busy.**

 **This one's all Marvel, folks, and it would probably do you good to know of Agents of SHIELD before reading. Oh, and I own nothing; as usual.**

 **Wolfgang**

The second that the alarm sounded, the brunette's eyes snapped open and her body started to move into action. One hand immediately found the jacket that she had discarded before slumping on her bed, while the other made a grab for her phone, and then stalled. With wide eyes, the agent stared at the fast scrolling white text on a black background.

"Shit," Daisy muttered, immediately snatching the device and holding the power button down. When that failed to do anything, she deftly ripped off the back cover and removed the battery, which finally did the turn the phone off. At the sound of her door opening, the woman's head whipped up to see her mentor hanging past the doorframe.

"Daisy, we need you in Coulson's office, now," ordered the voice of Melinda May, and being as well trained as Daisy had been by said same person, she immediately jumped up and moved to follow her old SO.

"Please tell me the servers aren't currently being hacked," she queried pleadingly as they approached the Director's office, which was thankfully not far from her living quarters.

"'Fraid so," May replied as they entered the room to find Fitz already on a laptop in the corner furiously typing while the large wall screen had sections of constantly scrolling programming commands. "How did you know?"

"They got in through my phone," Daisy replied, throwing the offending piece of technology on Coulson's desk as the man himself moved out of the way so she could use the keyboard there.

" _Your_ phone?" Fitz replied incredulously, looking up from his work. "I couldn't even get past one layer of the protections on that thing in under an hour; how did anyone even manage that without you noticing?"

"I'll be sure to find out once we're not being attacked by hackers," the woman replied as she watched the large screen for a moment, deciphering the lines of code and the blood draining from her face when she reached a conclusion. "Shit. Fitz, they're going for the encrypted communications channels." Sitting down, Daisy joined the tech genius in attempting to block off the hacker now she knew where to start.

"Secure comms? Why is that…oh, yeah that's not good," he stated after it dawned on him.

"What's so bad about that?" Coulson inquired with a concerned look upon his face as he stood to the side in his own office.

"They could potentially be used to backtrack to find every Agent across the world's location when they communicated with here. This could expose our every secret base or group," Fitz answered.

"Why are they backtracking off to-," Daisy's confused question faltered as the keyboard set into the desk suddenly stopped working. "Took out my hardware so I can't do anything," she declared angrily, before she was distracted by the larger text box that then took over a portion of the screen.

' _Nice try, cub_ ,' it typed out before the entire screen went black, and the alarm stopped its blaring.

"Oh shit; I know who this is," Daisy stated with wide eyes.

"Who?" Coulson immediately demanded, to no reply as the inhuman stared across to the other wall as white lines formed together to show the visage of a stylised wolf looking out at them, with a long bar at the bottom of the screen that sparked outwards as the voice started speaking.

"Sorry for the intrusion; I needed a secure line with a direct connection to you," came the modulated, gravelly voice that sounded close to a growl. "And sorry for using your phone, cub."

"Saying sorry doesn't make up for hacking the living daylights out of us," Daisy replied angrily. "And I told you not to call me that, Wolf!"

"The day you can keep me out of your systems is the day you'll no longer be a cub," the voice – now christened 'Wolf' – returned.

"I'm sorry; you know who this is?" Coulson interjected, looking at the ex-hacker expectantly.

"Yes, well, no," Daisy rubbed the back of her head while staring at the wolf head as it occasionally flickered glitchily. "Wolf is a hacker, one of the leading members of the Rising Tide."

"Is that all I am to you?" came the reply, conveying false hurt despite the monotone modulation. "What she's leaving out is that I'm the one who taught her everything that she knows about computers and hacking."

"Not _everything_ ," the woman protested.

"I found her as a kid trying to trawl the deep net, and decided she could use a hand learning things," Wolf continued. "This left a debt which I'm now calling in. Skye, I need your help."

"You never ask anyone for help, ever," Daisy said while standing up to look confusedly at the picture's eyes.

"Well, I'm asking now. I might have pissed off Hydra, and some of theirs are closing on my location. They've been after me for years, and it would be better for all of us if they didn't manage to capture me."

"You hacked into SHIELD's secure servers to ask me to pull you out of the fire?" the brunette replied incredulously.

"I needed a secure line; they would have been able to track me from anything else."

"Hang on; why are Hydra after you?" Coulson asked, his expression neutral.

"I've been a thorn in their side for a while, Director Coulson. However more recently, I may have… acquired some things from the remains of Cybertek that they were not happy about me having. If they find me, they will kill me, or, more likely, they will try to force me to work for them. I would rather neither of those possibilities occur."

"Where are you?" Daisy asked, concern showing on her visage.

"On the move, currently. However I will be at these co-ordinates at 10am, local time, tomorrow," a set of longitude and latitude appeared on screen in bold. "Come to the coffee shop and I'll meet you there. I'd prefer it to be just you, and perhaps Agent May; you're less likely to stick out here, and this needs to be as inconspicuous as possible. See you then, Cub."

The image of a wolf winked once, and then the screen blanked before everything returned to normal, the SHIELD logo spinning in front of them.

"Sir, permission to go?" the inhuman addressed the Director firmly.

"What, just like that?" the man replied incredulously, "they just hacked into SHIELD, remember."

"Yes, sir, and that's why I'd ask you to trust me when I say Hydra getting ahold of him would be bad," Daisy replied seriously, "that guy, is the king of the hackers. Literally, if he wanted nuclear launch codes, he'd stand an actual chance of getting to them. I'm handy with a keyboard but Wolf is something else entirely. We need to get to him before they do."

"You're thinking we can recruit him," Coulson deduced.

"I'm thinking it's a possibility. He at least knows SHIELD is the right side, or he wouldn't have contacted us, and he's a good person. I've known him since I was about twelve, and I think he could maybe be swayed to joining us," she stated. The Director sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he considered it.

"Why did he just ask for you and then May?" he eventually asked.

"Probably since those co-ordinates were fairly Eastern, I think," Daisy mused.

"Kuala Lumpur," Fitz interjected, spinning his laptop to show a map program with a locator dot flashing red.

"Sir?" the woman said towards the Director, who paused a moment in thought.

"Alright, but take Mack with you as backup. Fitz, I want you monitoring all our systems while they're away in case this is a ruse," Coulson ordered.

############################################################################

As the pair walked into the Coffee Shop, Daisy couldn't help but compare herself to May and wonder if her mentor hadn't rubbed off on her more than she knew. Once, she had worn a leather jacket and a pair of aviators to impersonate May, but now the only difference between them was Daisy's jacket was brown, and she wore no sunglasses. Still, she put such thoughts out of her mind as she scanned the interior of the little shop.

The pair shared a glance, before Daisy moved to a window seat that offered her a good view of the room and of the street beyond, while May moved to buy some coffee so they wouldn't look suspicious. She hadn't been sitting down for more than ten seconds when a voice spoke up from behind her.

"Now this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, and the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die." Hesitantly, Daisy turned around to look at the source of the voice; a young Asian woman, with brown hair tied in a bun on her head aside from two bangs either side of her face, sitting down with a silver laptop in front of her, and staring Daisy in the eyes. "As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back," she continued casually, "for the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack." Daisy stared at her, somewhat disbelievingly before the final nail was slammed into the coffin. "Hello, cub."

Hesitantly, the SHIELD agent moved from her own table to sit down opposite the woman, still staring at her. She was too young, and female! How was this even possible?

"Is there any reason you let me believe for eight years that you were a guy? And how old are you?" Daisy questioned.

"I'm the one who gave you that voice modulator software; and you knew I used the same one. Besides, I never claimed to be male, I just never corrected you when you made the mistake," she replied with a slight smile. "Oh, and I'm seventeen if you must know, though I don't see how that's important."

"You're three years younger than me," Daisy stated slowly, "that's… that would make you nine when we first talked!"

"Physically? Yeah. But we both know that age isn't everything."

"No, experience is," interjected May as she arrived with a pair of coffees, sliding one to Daisy. "This is your contact?"

"Wolf-Pack, at your service, Agent May," the woman tipped her head, "though if we get out of this safely, you can call me Amy."

############################################################################

"May, we're loaded up, get us in the air!" Mack yelled from the back of the Quinjet as he took cover behind one of the large wooden crates stacked there as some bullets got through the open door.

"Mind the goods!" Amy admonished back from where she threw something out the rapidly closing door.

"What was that?" the man replied warily.

"Improvised," the woman was cut off by a muffled explosion from below as they took off, "explosive device." Her explanation given, the young Asian moved over to where the remaining member of their group was nursing a bleeding wound in her bare arm, having removed her jacket. "How you doing, cub?"

"Thought I told you not to call me that," Daisy stated through gritted teeth. " _Amy_ ," she added with a slight smile, "still can't believe your name is really Amelia. I always figured you for a Zack, or a Hector."

"My name isn't Amelia," Amy absently replied while prying the agent's hand from the wound to smear a blue gel from a squeezable tube produced from somewhere. "That should numb you a bit, but this is still going to hurt."

"What's your name then?" Daisy inquired while watching confusedly as the woman pulled what looked like a Gameboy Pocket from her coat, pressing it to the wound.

"Deep breath," she ordered instead of answering, before pressing a button on the gaming device and ripping a muffled scream of agony from the other woman's lips. The gaming system was tossed away with a bloody bullet clinging to its magnetised underside, and quickly replaced by white bandages wrapping around her arm. "Amadeus," she stated after a few moments of silence, "Amadeus Cho."

"That's a guy's name isn't it?" Mack asked as he came over, seeing to his companion.

"My mother was a fan of Mozart," Amy replied, sitting down on one of the seats nearby, "and she was convinced I was going to be male. When I wasn't, she decided if a man could be called Artemis, I could be called Amadeus. It's where I got my username; Wolfgang, gang of wolves, pack of wolves, Wolf-Pack."

"That's… original," Daisy commented with a groan.

"He was a fine musician, which I'm definitely not. Though he was a genius from a young age, so I suppose I take after him in that respect."

"Bit full of yourself, there," Mack replied.

"I rank as the seventh smartest person on the planet," Amy stated, "just between Bruce Banner and Hank McCoy. It's not arrogance, it's just a fact."

"Seriously?" the man stated incredulously.

"No, Remus-ly," she deadpanned, wringing a laugh from Daisy. "Yes, I was being serious. Why do you think Hydra wanted me so badly?"

"The crates of stuff we loaded up?"

"They were after me before I stole a bunch of loot from them," Amy replied, moving over to one of the smaller crates to open it up.

"What is all that stuff, anyway?" Daisy inquired.

"Oh, this and that," Amy answered, pulling out an odd half-built silver helmet with red eye lenses and what looked like mandibles. She paused in her perusal as a thought struck her. "I just realised I didn't tell you where I need you to take me."

"I thought it would be to SHIELD?" Daisy stated more than asked.

"No, no, I need to get all this stuff home," she shot a side along look at the Agent as she did so, "I suppose I should invite you to see where I live."

############################################################################

"When you said 'invite you to see where I live' I didn't expect the Hong Kong sewer system," Daisy said with a wrinkled nose as she descended down a manhole to join Amy and May – Mack staying with the Quinjet once more.

"Well, we could get in through the emergency exit in the restaurant above," the Chinese woman replied as she walked down the large tunnel along a sidewalk, raised above the stagnant water, "but the guys renting the place don't know about it, and I'd rather keep it that way."

"You are excessively paranoid."

"It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you," she countered as she stopped halfway down the tunnel in front of a blank bit of wall. "Open up, Herc."

There were a few moments where nothing happened, and she looked crazy for talking at a wall before a section swung inwards to display a room beyond.

Following the woman into the space revealed a large space on two levels, with old sofas, a coffee table strewn with bits of electronics, screens on the walls, a snack machine, a fridge, numerous posters and blueprints covering the walls, a workstation with no less than ten different monitors and a host of other chaotic things strewn about. It was very much what Daisy imagined Tony Stark's sanctum would look like.

"Welcome home, madam," declared a slightly synthesized voice seemingly from nowhere, with an accent reminiscent of Northern England.

…Complete with an AI.

"Thank-you, Herc," Amy replied nonchalantly as she settled in the wheelie chair by her workstation. "Anything new?"

"The Brain Trust group has had numerous messages since you left," the voice, identified as 'Herc' answered. "Richards is still trying to get past your firewalls and find out who you are."

"You'd think he'd learn, wouldn't you," Amy muttered, before turning to her guests. "I guess, welcome to my humble abode! Former MI7 base that they abandoned when they gave up Hong Kong. I wiped it from the records and took it over; goes on for a while back there," she gestured to a doorway half hidden behind a stack of books, "plenty of lab space for experiments and stuff. Oh, and Hercules – my AI, since they're all the rage amongst super genii these days."

"This is quite…something," Daisy replied, still looking around the eclectic space.

"Well, it's home," the young woman stated fondly. "Now, why don't I pre-empt you on your attempt at persuading me to join SHIELD." She waved them off as they both attempted to speak. "I know what you're going to say, and I'm going to admit I'm tempted. I didn't like the old SHIELD, that's why I helped the Rising Tide and all. The new SHIELD? That's actually impressing me a bit. Not enough to fully join up, but still getting there. So, I decided I'd be willing to sign up as a consultant. I'll help you out if you ask for it, but for the rest of the time I want to be left alone. I'm not interested in playing the espionage game really."

"We're not spies," Daisy started, but stopped as a single hand was held up.

"Non-negotiable, cub."

"And don't call me that! _Amadeus_."

 **A/N: And that's where I got to; didn't know how to continue it, so into PBP it goes with other rabid plot bunnies.**


End file.
